Sascha's Hideouthttps://saschpe.wordpress.com
Open Source, All Things Android, (Astro) Photography and Personal Opinion.
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1 http://wordpress.com/https://saschpe.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/cropped-gotchi-64x64.jpg?w=32Sascha's Hideouthttps://saschpe.wordpress.com
3232Sunspot photography on April 21st, 2018https://saschpe.wordpress.com/2018/05/05/sunspot-photography-on-april-21st-2018/
https://saschpe.wordpress.com/2018/05/05/sunspot-photography-on-april-21st-2018/#respondSat, 05 May 2018 12:21:09 +0000http://saschpe.wordpress.com/?p=1242Continue reading Sunspot photography on April 21st, 2018]]>Even though we’re approaching the minimum of the current solar cycle, occasional sunspots still appear. The image was taken on 21st of April, 2018 using a Skyris 132M Camera using Baader Solar Continuum filter through an Edge HD 8”. This was the best shot out of a serious of 35 captures taken with FireCapture and stacked with AutoStakkert. Final touch ups (I had some dust on the sensor) where done with GIMP.

A lot of gear on the balcony

A bunch of accessories and the laptop running FireCapture (Windows sadly)

]]>https://saschpe.wordpress.com/2018/05/05/sunspot-photography-on-april-21st-2018/feed/0Sun_20180421_121016_SKYRIS 132M_Baader_Solar_Continuum_AS_p15_g4_ap1315_convsaschpe20180421_134834.jpg20180421_134815Alpha+ Player – Unofficial player for Soma FMhttps://saschpe.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/alpha-player-unofficial-player-for-soma-fm/
https://saschpe.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/alpha-player-unofficial-player-for-soma-fm/#respondSat, 15 Jul 2017 20:02:32 +0000http://saschpe.wordpress.com/?p=1188Continue reading Alpha+ Player – Unofficial player for Soma FM]]>I recently launched a new Android app and this post consists entirely of shameless advertising and click-bait. You have been warned.

What’s it all about?

Well, I’m a big fan of Soma.FM for years. They’ve had a mediocre Android app but axed it several years ago. Unsatisfied with the situation I decided to fire up Vim and apply some typing skills. The initial prototype didn’t took too long but I quickly realized I wanted to stand out of the crowd and add some unique features. After several iteration I ended up supporting all major Android platforms, namely Android Wear, Android Auto, Android TV, Chromecast. Not to mentioned customized tablet layouts. Overkill, no? It’s been out for a little while but I left it cooking in secret as I wanted to get some early feedback and grow it slowly, adding feature after feature…

So what’s new?

You can now seamlessly sync your favourite channels across all your devices. Just sign in with Google or with your trusty old e-mail and password. Enjoy the shiny new on-boarding experience that explains how awesome this app really is!

I need an elevator pitch first…

From Electronica to Metal, from Chill-Out to 80ies we have you covered. Over thirty popular radio stations are waiting to be discovered. Bookmark your favourite stations and continue listening on another device. All served with a beautiful Material Design inspired look.

Supports all major Android platforms

Stream to your Chromecast, Chromecast Audio or any other device supporting Google Cast

Launch and control playback on any Android Wear device (both Wear 1 & 2 are supported)

Hey, it’s free!

This app is free to use. An optional in-app premium purchase unlocks high-quality streams and other goodies as well as an ad-free experience.

Err, how does it actually look like?

Awesome, but I am to lazy to search it, where can I…

In case you want to leave feedback or suggestions, leave a comment, reach me on Twitter or join the Google+ Community or like the Facebook Page. Thanks!

]]>https://saschpe.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/alpha-player-unofficial-player-for-soma-fm/feed/0device-phone-landscape-1saschpegoogle-play-badgeChrome Custom Tabs for Androidhttps://saschpe.wordpress.com/2017/06/14/chrome-custom-tabs-for-android/
https://saschpe.wordpress.com/2017/06/14/chrome-custom-tabs-for-android/#respondWed, 14 Jun 2017 21:13:33 +0000http://saschpe.wordpress.com/?p=1170Continue reading Chrome Custom Tabs for Android]]>Working with Custom Tabs isn’t exactly straightforward. Even minimal examples involve quite a bit of code as can be seen in the Official Chrome Custom Tabs documentation.

What makes it worse is that one can’t expect Chrome to be available on any device. That means additional code to fall back to good old WebView. To simplify the experience, there is a new library available that provides a higher-level interface that implements many often-needed convenience features: github.com/saschpe/android-customtabs

To create a new CustomTabsIntent and start it with a keep-alive service as well as a fallback:

]]>https://saschpe.wordpress.com/2017/06/07/android-playlist-file-parser/feed/0saschpeCelestron Firmware Manager on Linuxhttps://saschpe.wordpress.com/2017/04/08/celestron-firmware-manager-on-linux/
https://saschpe.wordpress.com/2017/04/08/celestron-firmware-manager-on-linux/#commentsSat, 08 Apr 2017 14:27:47 +0000http://saschpe.wordpress.com/?p=1012Continue reading Celestron Firmware Manager on Linux]]>To update the hand control or motor controller firmware on any of your Celestron mounts, you will need the Celestron Firmware Manager. The whole process is explained on this website. Long story short, you have to download the software here:

After unzipping you end up with CFM.jar. To be able to run that you need to have Java installed. To do so on Fedora enter the following in the terminal:

$ sudo dnf install java

The firmware manager downloads a range of files upon first start. Enough time to deal with the …

Serial to USB converter

You may need a Serial-to-USB adapter as few modern mainboards still have serial ports. I can recommend the Trendnet TU-S9 USB to Serial Converter (Clicking on the image or text link will lead you to Amazon). It does not need any special drivers and works out of the box on any modern Linux distribution.

Connection to the mount

The Celestron Advanced VX mount (AVX) comes with a serial cable included so combining that with the USB-to-Serial converter and plugging it into the hand controller port labelled “GEM” is straightforward. Press the Menu and the Celestron buttons (bottom left) while turning on the mount to enter the boot-loader of the NexStar+ hand controller. Now you’re ready to update.

The Celestron Firmware Manager needs to be able to read from this serial device to discover it. You can solve that by adding the dialout group to your user:

$ sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER

You have to re-login for this to apply to your current session but you might just want to change ownership of the file (via chown) for simplicity’s reason. When starting up Celestron Firmware Manager it should now find your mount right away:

Depending on your mount type you may have to change from the default alt-azimuth to equatorial in the options menu. All that’s left is to press update and a little patience:

Temp folders

Windows has plenty of them. In fact, each one surpasses the size of my Linux root file system Let’s start simple:

C:\Users\$USER\AppData\Local\Temp

Office caches (mostly Lync data and random crap):

C:\Users\$USER\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\

C:\MSOCache

Whatever that is:

C:\ProgramData\Package Cache

SQL Server also has an update cache too:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Setup Bootstrap

Don’t forget the System Center Configuration Manager Cache. That’s the thing that your sysadmin fills for you :

C:\Windows\ccmcache

Windows Installer Cache

This one can grow really fast.

C:\Windows\Installer

However, you shouldn’t touch that manually. Otherwise all hell may break loose. Instead, use the official Windows Installer Cleanup Utility (deprecated but still usefull)or it’s successor Microsoft FixIt.

TFS-Mappings

In case you still rely on Team Foundation Server, regularly check your mapping folders. Build artifacts tend to pile up there even after removing branches, etc.

Resharper Cache

Visual Studio is useless without, so you’re likely using it too. I was unable to configure the cache size but you can safely delete it once in a while:

The pagefile

Yes, a classic! Windows loves to have a big pagefile because it always tries to get as many dirty pages on disks as possible. So in my case it had a (Windows-managed) size of 17GB. Feels like quite a lot. So depending on personal taste you may want to adjust this here:

Suspend to disk

As expected, suspend to disk needs space too. Windows uses a dedicated file, usually around the size of your built in RAM:

C:\hiberfil.sys

If Suspend to RAM is good enough for you, you may want to disable it. Open up cmd.exe and issue “powercfg -H off“:

TL;DR

With these rather simple measures, I managed to reclaim around 40GB on a Workstation at work. This can make quite a difference if you’re on a small-ish SSD.

]]>https://saschpe.wordpress.com/2016/02/26/disk-space-for-windows-developers/feed/0saschpepagefilesuspLync on Mac / Linuxhttps://saschpe.wordpress.com/2016/02/26/lync-on-mac-linux/
https://saschpe.wordpress.com/2016/02/26/lync-on-mac-linux/#respondFri, 26 Feb 2016 12:55:14 +0000http://saschpe.wordpress.com/?p=942Continue reading Lync on Mac / Linux]]>Some of us have to work in a Windows environment at work. Often enough, people use Microsoft Lync to communicate. It is available for other platforms but that doesn’t make it any better. On Mac OS, the most viable instant messenger (IM) option is Adium. It turns out there is a SIPE plugin available for libpurple (the backend for a plethora of IMs including Pidgin). SIPE/SIMPLE is the “Lync protocol”.

Installation

Download and install Adium on your Mac:

Then download the SIPE plugin. On a Mac, SourceForge will offer the Adium plugin by default.
Once installed, you should get a success message:

Account Setup

This step is rather straightforward, add an Office Communicator account:

OpenGL GLX context is not using direct rendering, which may cause performance problems

This is because Steam ships copies of several system libraries which may interfere with other libraries on your system that it doesn’t replace. This can easily be fixed. Just remove Steams copies and let it use your system’s default libraries. Here’s a simple script to accomplish that:

]]>https://saschpe.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/fixing-steam-on-linux-opengl-glx-warning/feed/0saschpeWindows Command Line and Copy-Pastehttps://saschpe.wordpress.com/2014/08/21/windows-command-line-and-copy-paste/
https://saschpe.wordpress.com/2014/08/21/windows-command-line-and-copy-paste/#respondThu, 21 Aug 2014 16:06:00 +0000http://saschpe.wordpress.com/?p=932Continue reading Windows Command Line and Copy-Paste]]>Using Copy-Paste in the Windows Command Line isn’t straightforward by default. To paste anything, you have to right-click to open up the context dialog and click insert (or “Einfügen” in German J):

However, the Command Line does have some semi-hidden settings which can simplify things. You have to right-click the cmd.exe window title and enter Properties (“Eigenschaften” in my case):

In the Options tab, you should tick the Quick-Edit-Mode checkbox and press Ok. You can of course adjust the other options to your liking:

From now on, whenever you’ve got something in the copy buffer, a simple right-click pastes the content into the Command Line Window. Neato.